Low veld –
the land stretching north from the Limpopo escarpment to the Limpopo
river – hot, subject to drought, and difficult to farm

Ou –
literally 'old' but used by Afrikaners as 'bloke' or 'guy'. English
speakers usually said 'oke'

Rand –
The area round Johannesburg and Pretoria (now known as Gauteng) and
also the name of South Africa's currency

Rooinek –
Afrikaner nickname for English speakers

Skellum -
villain

Township –
area usually outside the main towns reserved for non-whites

Tribal
Trust Land – land designated for communal tribal use in Zimbabwe

Tsotsies –
muggers or thieves

Verkrampte
– Afrikaners with rigid racial views

Verligte –
Afrikaners with more liberal views

Whites –
White Africans

INTRODUCTION

Years before I ever went to South Africa I met a
white English–speaking South African called Chris who worked as a
very humble clerk in the Ministry of Defence in Gosport. His income
was on the low side, and he lived a rather humdrum life in Gosport in
an eight-til-five job, one hour off for lunch. He had no prospects of
advancement as he was approaching sixty. I was doing an Organisation
and Methods analysis where he worked, and in the three weeks I was
there we became quite friendly. He liked to reminisce about his life
in Cape Town when he was younger, and he gave vivid descriptions of a
beautiful city, set on a peninsula, with a warm sea on one side of
the peninsula and a cold sea on the other, a backdrop of mountains,
and a surround of vineyards, forests and small pleasant quiet towns.